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The series consists of central office files of the Directors of Mental Health Services and the Deputy Ministers of the Mental Health Branch created between 1936 and 1972.

This is a set of central office files of the Directors of Mental Health Services (MHS) and the Deputy Ministers of the Mental Health Branch. Before 1959 the Director of Mental Health Services (under a variety of titles), reported to the Deputy Provincial Secretary. Between 1959 and 1968 the positions of Director and Deputy Minister were held by the same person. In 1968 the positions were separated, with Dr. H.W. Bridge as the Director of Mental Health Services, located in Vancouver, and Dr. Tucker as the Deputy Minister, located in Victoria. In September 1971 the position of Director of Mental Health Services was terminated. The statutory obligations of the Director were assumed by the Deputy Minister.

Between 1872 and 1959 MHS was part of the Department of the Provincial Secretary. In 1959 MHS joined the [Public] Health Branch and the Hospital Insurance Service in the new Department of Health Services and Hospital Insurance.

The records include a few files of Dr. Arthur L. Crease, who retired as Director of Mental Hygiene and Psychiatry in 1950 after 16 years at the helm of the Mental Health Services. The bulk of the files were created during the tenures of Dr. A.M. Gee (Director, 1951 58) and Dr. A.E. Davidson (Director and Deputy Minister, 1958 67). Dr. Fred G. "Tommy" Tucker was the Deputy Minister between 1967 and 1975.

Also included are files of the Deputy Director (Dr. Tucker), the Nursing consultant to the Branch (Miss Lonergan), and the Coordinator of Adult Psychiatric Services (Dr. H.W. Bridge).

The time period which these records represent includes many major developments in terms of treatment, insulin shock therapy (1937), electric shock therapy (1942), lobotomy (1945), penicillin and many other drugs. It also includes many new developments in care delivery, new Homes for the Aged in the 1940s and the Crease Clinic of Psychological Medicine in 1949, and the development of community mental health care centres in the 1960s.

This series consists of report of the Advisory Committee on Labour Conditions in Hospitals; and Special Report of Advisory Committee on Labour Conditions in Hospitals concerning "Student Nurses" and "Mental Graduates", Provincial Mental Hospital.

This series consists of correspondence inward and outward, and interdepartmental memos of the Provincial Secretary, pertaining to provincial mental health care institutions, mothers' pensions, child welfare, and adoption laws from 1918-1926.